"Your gonna have to move, this is my desk."
"Is it? Well, that sucks because I don't see the name Jackson anywhere." I say, tracing my finger along the table pretending to find his name written on the desk.
"Wow, the new girl has attitude." He slams...
"We should take Jeremy and Ben's trucks to the movie and four of us sit in each," I suggest. Everyone agrees as we start making our way out the front door.
Miki and Emily came not long after I was figuring out what to wear. When they got here, they came with bags of snacks, drinks and blankets.
Now that we are all ready, I lock the front door and head to the trucks. Jackson, Jeremy, Emma and I go into Jeremy's and the others go into Ben's truck. As we drive, I scroll through my facebook feed.
Jackson lays his head on my shoulder watching my phone scroll. Someone's post has caught my attention, I stop scrolling and freeze. Jackson notices the change of my stance, he looks up at me and then back to the phone.
"Whats wrong and who are they?" He asks.
"I-I, um it's nothing. Don't worry about it," I stammer as Jeremy slows down at the red lights and looks through his rearview, at me. Jackson and Jeremy's eyes are both on me and I'm starting to feel shaky and light headed.
"Ella, Who's in that photo?" Jackson asks again. By now my phone has gone to sleep and the photo is no longer on the screen of my phone.
"No one. It's fine," I give him a fake smile and look out the window and watch the trees fly past as if its green paint getting smeared with my fingers.
What a way to ruin whats soon to be a good night.
Jeremy turns left to drive onto the park grounds, he finds a spot in the middle, right next to Ben. I get out of the truck and walk over to the trailor and unload the bags I have packed with food, blankets and pillows. Jeremy pulls down the tailgate and I jump up and start laying the pillows and blankets down with the food in the middle. I hope down and walk over to Ben's truck and see that it is ready like mine. I walk back to Jeremy's truck and grab a piece of gum from the front seats in one of the many compartments he has.
"Hello and welcome to The Event Drive-ins. The movie you are watching tonight is Grease which will start in approximately 15 minutes. So, if you need to go to the toilet or set up anything this is your time to do so. With that being said, have fun and enjoy the movie," Someone says over the loudspeakers.
Everyone is standing in between the two trucks. I walk over to the girls and suggest going to the toilets, they all agree and we start walking to public toilet building. Miki and Emily are in front and Emma and I are following behind them.
"Is everything alright? You were kinda acting weird in the car," she asks.
"Um Braeden, what happened to him?" I ask. Emma stops in her tracks.
"I'm sorry, Ella. I didn't know if I should tell you this because I don't know how you are going to react to it," she says making become worried and scared.
"Emma, what happened to him?" I ask again. By now Miki and Emily have noticed they we have stopped and started walking back to us. They realise that we are having a serious conversation and stand back a little.
"Ella, not now. I don't want to ruin tonight because of this." She says.
"Emma, it's going to ruin my night by not knowing, though either way, it's going to be on my mind whether you tell me now or later. So just tell me," I pester.
"Okay, please don't make a big deal out of this," I nod in response and to tell her to keep going, "Jake somehow found out that Brayden was the one who did what he did to you and he got all his gang friends and beat the shit out of him."
I freeze.
He didn't.
My hands go straight to my face as I crouch down on the grass.
"Why, why did he do that?" I scream. "Why can't it all be fucking over?" Tears fall from eyes.
Emma crouches down next to me and pats my back. I stand up angrily and I get ready to start walking but I stop when I hear my name get called out.
"Ella! Ella!" Jackson and Jeremy come running over.
"What happened?" Jeremy asks Emma as he walks towards her. Emma whispers in his ears what happened as Jackson opens his arm to hug. His arms close around and my body goes like a dead weight as I sob into his chest.
Jackson kisses my head multiple times, although lately, I've noticed that when I'm upset he kisses my the top of my head and it immediately calms me down.
Jackson grabs my head with both his hands and kisses my forehead.
"Whatever it is thats bothering you is going to be okay, I promise you," he says, looking straight into my eyes, "Are you still up for the movie?" He asks.
I nod in response and we all head back to the trucks. I stand in front of the tailgate as Jackson grabs my waists and lifts me up and onto the trailor. He hops up as well as Emma and Jeremy.
The movie intro starts to play as I snuggle up to Jackson whilst he wraps his arms around me, almost like he's protecting me.
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***
Everyone is focusing on the movie but me, I'm distracted. I can't get the thoughts and scenarios that running through my head about Jake and Braeden.
I honestly thought that when I would move here that all of that would be left behind me, but clearly not when Jake who I don't even care about, has the nerve to bash someone who belongs in my past and my past only.
As questions and thoughts run through my head, I start fidgeting with Jackson's black drawstrings from his hoodie and twitch my toes.
"Hey, are you alright, you're fidgeting a lot?" It's kind of a good and bad thing when Jackson can notice me feeling a little uneasy.
